Ghalib sees no distinction betwixt life and suffering. His life was punctuated with tragedies; he lost all seven of his children in their infancy, saw his patron (Bahadur Shah Zafar) sent to die in exile by the British, was a witness to the massacres that followed the 1857 revolt, and struggled with poverty throughout his life. As a result, his poetry is tinged with a melancholic air.

That sorrow is weaved into existence and can only be alleviated by death is a recurring idea in his work.

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*an alternative translation:

Life’s yoked to suffering, together they are boundWhy hope then respite ere death can be found?